What would YOU do with 250,000 Starpoints?

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So I’ve been playing the new SPG Open the World game / sweepstakes pretty consistently over the past few weeks. I have a separate browser window open and each morning, I will play twice on my account, and twice on my wife’s account. The game is pretty boring, but thankfully doesn’t take more than a minute or two

I did actually WIN a week or so ago (1,000 Starpoints), and I’ve had some reports from other readers and people I follow of other wins (some $50 Amazon gift cards), but this morning, as I was playing (and losing again… and again… and again… and again…) I started wondering what I would do if I won the grand prize of 250,000 Starpoints

Still, a huge one-time bonus might be an opportunity for a vacation to remember!

Option 2: Spreading out the bonus over (many!) multiple nights

Starwood actually has one of the best award charts for lower end hotels. Category 1 and Category 2 Starwood hotels are only 3,000 and 4,000 points / night, and there’s a 1,000 point savings if you book a weekend night, meaning you can get a room for only 2,000 points / night.

That’s not to mention that their lower-end hotels are nice! We’ve stayed at the Sheraton Suites Columbus, which is a Category 2 hotel and had a 1BR suite for only 3,000 points.

Though since my general thinking with miles and points is “earn em and burn em“, I’m not sure I have the patience to string out my grand prize bonus (which I’m TOTALLY going to win!) over 125 weekend Category 1 hotels, even if there were some near me (which there aren’t)

Option 3: Transfer to Airline miles

Saving the best for last, what I’d probably end up doing with most of them is transferring them to airline miles. The airline mile transfer is unique among hotel points to Starwood, and you can transfer your miles to several different airlines.

Additionally, for every 20,000 Starpoints you transfer, you get a 5,000 point bonus. Although there is a limit of 79,999 Starpoints that you can transfer in a 24 hour period, I do not believe there is any limit besides that. So 250,000 Starpoints would transfer into 310,000 airline miles (that you could put all in one airline or spread out across different airlines.

310,000 airline miles could get you a LOT of travel – you can check the Mile Matrix to see what redemptions are out there

Of course, then you just have to solve the NEXT question, namely, what would you do with 310,000 airline miles!!! I’d love to hear your ideas on that as well as what you’d do with the grand prize of 250,000 Starpoints in the comments!

I won a $50 Amazon gift card, so I’m probably out of the running for the 250,000 Starpoints, but if I were to win them, I’d have a St. Regis binge (multiple cities), but put most of the points towards miles.

About Me

Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at dan@pointswithacrew.com.